A Melodic Center You Can Feel

Now Playing on The Tonearm:

Stephen Vitiello joins Lawrence Peryer to discuss Trinity, his collaborative album with Lawrence English. Its most searching moment belongs to the late Steve Roden, assembled from unreleased recordings, and the conversation turns on a question Vitiello kept asking himself: "I had to imagine what if he had said no."
Arina Korenyu speaks with Justin Hicks about Man of Style, a debut solo album recorded in two days with Meshell Ndegeocello and guitarist Chris Bruce. The conversation unpacks what it means to return to the singer-songwriter at your core after years as a conceptual sound-maker.
Andrea Mazzariello's essay on Joni Mitchell's "A Case of You" opens with 2,000 protesters harmonizing outside ICE headquarters in Minneapolis. It winds through the Pali concept of dukkha and a melodic center you can feel but not reconstruct, arriving at the argument that getting the pebble out of your own shoe is a political act.
Meredith Hobbs Coons and Carolyn Zaldivar Snow compare notes on Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery, the 2025 documentary. Their essay covers shame, all-female stage crews, and the festival's racial blind spots, and considers what it means that the proof-of-concept still holds.
Damien Joyce speaks with Financial Times pop critic Ludo Hunter-Tilney, who has been reviewing music since 1998 with pen, paper, and a Nietzsche-informed suspicion of transcription software. They discuss music's capacity for political change and whether monetized rebellion accomplishes much of anything.
And, on our podcast, Lawrence sits down with Toronto saxophonist Patrick Smith, whose new album Words Underlined was recorded at Sellers & Newell, a bookstore that moonlights as a venue. Smith's bass-free trio alternates between composed pieces and full improvisations.

Crack on! 💥

All Inputs as Collaborators — Stephen Vitiello and the Art of Hearing

The veteran sound artist discusses 'Trinity,' his trio-format album with Lawrence English, and why every input in his practice—a space, a field recording, a late friend's unreleased tape—warrants the same respect as a living collaborator. Interview by Lawrence Peryer.

Back to the Simple Thing — Justin Hicks Makes His Move

Recorded over two days with longtime collaborators Meshell Ndegeocello and Chris Bruce, 'Man of Style' finds Justin Hicks reclaiming the singer-songwriter identity that persisted through decades of noise rock, sound art, and theatrical performance. Interview by Arina Korenyu.

Writing in Blood — From Laurel Canyon to the Streets of Minneapolis

Andrea Mazzariello moves between Joni Mitchell's elusive vocal lines in "A Case of You" and protesters singing outside Minneapolis ICE headquarters, where the distance between marching and dancing collapses in a single frame. Written by Andrea Mazzariello.

The Fair and the Fury — On the Lilith Fair Documentary and Feminist History Worth Keeping

Meredith Hobbs Coons and Carolyn Zaldivar Snow of The Tonearm compare notes on 'Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery,' the documentary film that turns feminist music history into something closer to evidence. Written by Meredith Hobbs Coons and Carolyn Zaldivar Snow.

Ludo Hunter-Tilney — A Five-Star Pop Critic in a Three-Star World

The music journalist reflects on his two-decade tenure at the Financial Times, the tension between covering superstars and unknown artists, and his conviction that transcribing interviews by hand remains a moral compulsion in an age of automated everything. Interview by Damien Joyce.

This Week's Episode of The Tonearm Podcast:

Patrick Smith: Bebop, Brass Bands, and a Bookstore

With ‘Words Underlined’ out now on Lit Soc Records, saxophonist Patrick Smith talks about the trio format's peculiar difficulty, what he learned from Mark Shim in New York, and why Toronto lets him play everything.

The Hit Parade:

"American Masters Celebrates Black History Month with Documentary Honoring Music Pioneer Sun Ra, Premiering February 20 on PBS." Sun Ra: Do The Impossible ❋ "There’s a new sound gripping Sheffield. You won’t find it at one of the city’s eclectic jazz nights; nor in any of its clubs or live music venues. You’ll find it in the back aisle of a Co-op supermarket on Ecclesall Road." ❋ "An expansive atlas of over 400 record covers, Maps on Vinyl features maps, both literal and figurative, across the medium of album art. From cartographic to geographic, this volume opened my eyes not just to how many map album covers exist, but also to how prevalent maps are in our day-to-day." ❋ The Coltrane Circle ❋ "The same work ethic that kept [Andrew Weatherall] going through his entire life had him relentlessly gigging on top of his studio work. All of which meant that there was no real time at any point to conceptualise albums: The Sabres Of Paradise were a non-stop moody groove machine." ❋ "As a young artist during the analog era, [Arnold Dreyblatt's] initial calling was video. How he changed direction to become one of the leading makers of avant-garde music for decades is the story of being in the right place at the right time." ❋ "There were a tiny number of Sámi DJs playing gigs, all of whom were male. Now, the culture has shifted dramatically: there are many other female DJs on the scene and a big and growing appetite for Indigenous music-focused club nights." ❋ "The new musical environment taking shape overlapped and evolved as Prince came of age. In addition to being the most gifted performer to come out of the city, Prince is the through line that connects the decline of jazz, the rise of new music, and its growth in the city’s Black communities." ❋ "While we all knew that Kraftwerk used then-cutting-edge technology and that, of course, synths and drum machines were at the heart of their setup, there were few clues as to what the band actually employed bar the odd Minimoog and ARP Odyssey." ❋ "The band now includes about 150 members, and extends an open invitation to any musician who wants to join. Over the past several weeks, these musicians have taken up an urgent new role."

New Music Recommendations: Abronia - Shapes Unravel (RIYL: the idea of Wednesday hanging out with Black Sabbath), Greg Stasiw - Guesswork (RIYL: Hiroshi Yoshimura, Harold Budd, Pauline Anna Strom), Manu Delago & Max ZT - Deuce (RIYL: immersive handpan and hammered dulcimer improvisation), The Three Seas - Antaḥkaraṇa (RIYL: Baul mysticism meets dub and folk-rock), and Magda Mayas' Filamental - Murmur (RIYL: large ensemble free improvisation inspired by the coordinated movement of bird murmurations). Let us know what's good!

Run-Out Groove:

Next week: Ratboys + Winged Wheel + Marija Kovačević + Lala Lala + the Art of Prestige Records. This one goes to eleven and a half. Until then, here's one last reminder of two experiments concocted in The Tonearm labs that you are invited to participate in:

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Thank you for reading! We'll see you again next week. 🚀